Central Station, Rotterdam, Netherlands

A new entrance for Rotterdam

Team CS design new central station

Rotterdam is to get a new Central Station. This is to be re-anchored in the city centre and integrated in the European network of transport hubs created by the arrival of the high-speed rail system (HSL). So a Grand Station of international standing is required.

In the design, the city is drawn to the new station by compacting the small-scale urban fabric round about so that railway zone and city become a single entity. The finer texture with its new sight lines and the mix of living and working will greatly improve the social climate of this zone. On entering the tall light-filled station concourse, travelers have an overall view and see at once where the trains are. The sunken and widened passage beneath the tracks is a natural continuation of the concourse. Platforms have a largely transparent roof some 250 meters long spanning the entire track zone.

The entrance on Spoorsingel is a modest one in keeping with the low-key residential area there and the
smaller passenger flow. In stark contrast, the tall glass and timber concourse on the city side is clearly the main gateway to the metropolitan city centre. The new building's shape expresses the internal logistics of this transport hub. Marking the onset of Rotterdam's 'cultural axis', the new Grand Central Station points the way to the city's heart.

The new Central Station was designed by Team CS: a cooperation of Benthem Crouwel Architekten, Meyer en Van Schooten Architecten and West 8 urban design & landscape architecture.